November 15, 2007

• More coverage of the push to open up London (and maybe other capitals) as centers for class action litigation [Legal Week, Herman @ Times Online, USA Today]
• Alabama Supreme Court, 8-1, throws out billions in punitives against ExxonMobil in gas royalty dispute [Mobile Press-Register; other links at Overlawyered; earlier] Which doesn't quite mean Alabama has gone back to being a "normal" state on tort issues, as witness a $50 million award to the family of a man killed in a water heater explosion [Mobile Press-Register]
• Further thoughts on that chutzpah-laden Lerach op-ed in the Post [Ribstein; earlier]
• New on Overlawyered: no one's telling how much was paid to consumers in Madison County Paxil class action; no liability for doctors who revived newborn; U.S. intervenes to denounce lawyer's high fee in whistleblowing marine-dumping case; does ADA protect right of applicant prone to carpal-tunnel syndrome to take a wrist-straining job? and much more;
• Big companies' bets on the market didn't work out. Definitely a scandal of malfeasance, right? [Jenkins @ WSJ, sub-only; Ribstein]
• After feds catch Boulder, Colo.'s Aurora Dairy in violations of standards for what constitutes organic milk, along come the piggyback class-action suits [St. Louis Business Journal]
• When do private lawsuits count as "state action"? [Volokh]